Headlights, Fog Lights, and Driving Lights Comparison

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Okay, so I installed new PIAA headlights and Philips X-Treme fog lights to go along with my Rigid SR-20 Combo in my EcoDiesel. The headlights are better, the fogs not so much. All in all it lights up the road pretty well with everything on. I have the Rigid tied into my highbeams with a relay so it will turn on and off along with the automatic highbeams (with a seperate switch to turn the Rigid off completely)

Fog Lights Only:
IMG_3943.jpg


Low Beams:
IMG_3944.jpg


High Beams:
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High Beams and Rigid SR-20:
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IMG_3946.jpg
 
Here's a comparison showing my 3500 completely stock and my 1500 with the new headlights sitting side by side. Not the best photo, but it shows the PIAA's are noticeably brighter and whiter than stock headlights.
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And for comparison sake between my 3500 stock and after I upgraded, here are a series of stock lights:

Stock fog only, notice how much better they are than the 1500 even after the bulb replacement:
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Stock low beam:
IMG_3941.jpg


Stock high beam:
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Turning Night Into Day

And now on to the 3500... I replaced the stock headlights with Philips X-Treme 9005's, the stock fog lights with Rigid's 4 light brackets, installed Rigid SAE Fogs and D2 Driving in them and added a Rigid E-20 Combo in the bumper using Rigid's SR-20 tow hook adapters. I'm EXTREMELY impressed with Rigid's stuff, anybody who thinks they can buy generic LED's from Amazon and be happy really should think twice. You get what you pay for with Rigid.

How I wired them:

On the outer 2 bumper lights, I installed the Rigid SAE fog lights. I wired them directly into the harness that powered the factory lights, considering the factory bulbs are 55 watts and the Rigids are only 35, there's nothing to worry about and no need to use a relay. On the other hand they work so well, I may wire them to be able to use them with the high beams as well.

My 3500 Limited has the factory auxiliary switches, so I used them instead of the switches that came with the lights. In the inner two bumper lights I mounted the Rigid D2 driving lights, wired in with a relay fed off fused battery power. This relay is switched by another relay which is fed by the high beams so they will automatically turn off and on when the high beams do. That second relay is switched with auxiliary switch one so the driving lights will only work when the aux switch is on AND the high beams are on. The Rigid E2-20 Combo is wired the exact same way, only I used auxiliary switch 2. The reason for the multiple relays was to make certain there was no additional load placed on the factory high beams which may throw a code. I may have to wire a capacitor in with the high beam feed to the relays if I get any stuttering, so far it is working great. I used auxiliary switch 3 to feed 12v to the switched side of the relay feeding the E2-20 that way I can turn just the center LED on without anything else when I'm driving off road. I'm really happy with how everything turned out, the visibility over stock is like night and day (literally :cool:)

For reference, the garage on the left is about 100' away, the snow pile at the end is about 200'. The trees on the right are about 40' tall.

Rigid SAE fog lights only:
IMG_3952.jpg


Rigid SAE Fog and Philips low beams notice how well the Rigid's fill in everywhere the low beams arent:
IMG_3953.jpg


Philips high beams only:
IMG_3954.jpg


Philips high beams and Rigid D2 driving, again the Rigid's fill in nicely:
IMG_3955.jpg


And when you really need to see, Philips high beams, Rigid D2 driving and Rigid E2-20 combo, unfortunately the neighbors house is only about 1/4 mile away, so you cant really tell just how far out the light bar reaches:
IMG_3956.jpg


Here is a pic of the front end showing everything mounted:
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Very nice upgrade. If I'm understanding this correctly you have a light bar (E2-20 spot cornering combo?), mounted in the center, and two sets of lights (D2-driving & D2-fog) mounted in the original fog light location? Could you add a picture of the front of your truck showing all these lights? Are all the Rigid lights you purchased made in the USA?

Thanks,
Marty
 
The results are pretty amazing. I initially was going to install a lightbar, but it was a double row and I was concerned about blocking quite that much airflow. The single row looks like it still has quite a bit of space around it (looking at other pics on the internet). Guys over at Rigid are awesome dudes. I've been to their facility, and at least a dozen of my friends are sponsored by them and run their products in their race buggies. Top of the line stuff, though they do have top of the line prices. :) There are some Chinese bars which can produce light output on par with Rigid, but they're very few and far between. I have a 20" and 2 7" on my buggy, and they've been perfect for the 4 years I've had them on and I beat the crap out of my rig.
 
Very nice upgrade. If I'm understanding this correctly you have a light bar (E2-20 spot cornering combo?), mounted in the center, and two sets of lights (D2-driving & D2-fog) mounted in the original fog light location? Could you add a picture of the front of your truck showing all these lights? Are all the Rigid lights you purchased made in the USA?

Thanks,
Marty

Added a pic of the front end at the end of pictures above. In the picture the outer lights look like they are tilted sideways, that's evidently just the camera angle as they are all square with the truck. According to their website, they are "designed, engineered, and assembled in the USA" So I'm assuming they use some foreign parts. They are definitely high quality though, not cheap chinese stuff. I had the E2-20 mounted in the bumper of my 2013 Dually Aisin for 2 yrs and 20,000 miles, 18k of which was towing, often grossing over 30,000lbs. I never once had a problem with overheating. The light bar has a pretty fair amount of room all around it, it doesn't seal up the gap completely. Although I'm sure it does block the air some, it's certainly not enough to make a difference, at least in my case.
 
Personally I would NOT block that area if towing light or heavy.

To each their own. I've had ZERO overheating problems grossing 30,000+ in 90+ degree weather pulling mountain grades at full throttle. If that doesn't cause an overheat I dunno what would.

Anyway, I'm going to purchase an Edge CTS2 and I will monitor intake air temp vs. ambient temp for 1,000 miles or more towing my 5th wheel both with and without the light bar installed. That will finally put an end to the debate once and for all.
 
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